Choose the libraries you would like to view facts and figures about:
Summary
During the period of study, of the books borrowed from their collections, your selected libraries featured 859 book holding records and these have been associated with 731 book edition records records across 20 genres. Of the books borrowed from your selected libraries, these were written by 530 authors and had 243 borrowers. Of these, 237 (97.53%) were Male, 5 (2.06%) were Female, 1 (0.41%) were Unknown. The selected libraries documented 15521 borrowing events, 15486 (99.77%) by Male borrowers, 27 (0.17%) by Female borrowers, 2 (0.01%) by Unknown borrowers. There were an average of 63.87 borrowings per borrower at the selected libraries and of the borrowed books, each book holding was borrowed an average of 18.07 times. At the selected libraries during the period of study, books were borrowed for 19 years between 1798 and 1816, with an average of 816.89 borrowings per year.
Across the whole of the Books and Borrowing site, we use the following data structure and terminology. All titles in our dataset are categorised on four levels: Works, Editions, Holdings and Volumes. A work is a text considered as a conceptual object or whole (such as Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations). An edition is a particular physical printing of a work (such as the 1776 quarto edition of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations printed in London for William Strahan, Thomas Cadell and William Creech). A holding is a copy of an edition (or in some cases multiple editions, as when pamphlets are bound together) held at one of our libraries (such the copy of the 1776 quarto edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations held by the Advocates Library). A volume is a part of a holding (such as volume 2 of the Advocates Library’s copy of the 1776 Wealth of Nations).
Of the 243 borrowers at your selected libraries, 185 have at least one identified occupation. Borrowers may have any number of occupations and the total number of occupations associated with borrowers at these libraries is 202. In the visualisations, press on an occupation's segment to perform a search for its associated borrowing records.
A breakdown of borrower occupations present at these libraries
The percentage of borrowings made by each occupation
["Agricultural","Arts and Letters","Crafts, Artisans, and Manufacturing","Education","Independent Means","Law","Mariner","Medicine and Health","Military","Politics/Office Holders","Religion and Clergy"]
A a book holding may have multiple genres and 887 genre classifications have been applied to 859 book holding records at your selected libraries. The first visualisation shows the total number of book holdings we have catalogued from your selected libraries (we have only catalogued books that are actually borrowed, not the entire collection), divided into sections for genre, while the second visualisation shows the total number of borrowing acts we have catalogued, divided into sections for the genre of the associated book. The comparison between the two shows the relative popularity of genres. If all genres were borrowed equally then the two visualisations would be the same. What is interesting is when the visualisations differ, as this shows where a particular genre is more (or less) popular than another. In the visualisations, press on a genre's segment to perform a search for its associated borrowing records.
A breakdown of book genres borrowed at these libraries
The percentage of borrowings of each genre
A breakdown of book genres borrowed at these libraries
Borrowings at your selected libraries during the period, divided into sections for occupation types. Press on a year bar to zoom in on its borrowings, divided into months.
[{"name":"Agricultural","data":[0,25,73,182,274,135,140,100,127,287,278,377,508,361,346,427,333,70,9]},{"name":"Arts and Letters","data":[0,9,15,14,6,10,9,17,6,16,11,16,20,10,0,24,9,0,0]},{"name":"Crafts, Artisans, and Manufacturing","data":[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,6,0,9,6,62,89,43,31,0,0]},{"name":"Education","data":[0,5,7,17,12,10,5,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,3,70,67,6,21]},{"name":"Independent Means","data":[1,31,45,38,77,54,25,29,31,52,57,59,112,79,61,62,69,0,0]},{"name":"Law","data":[0,24,80,64,64,46,68,29,21,55,50,48,96,54,63,115,87,0,0]},{"name":"Mariner","data":[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,4,20,0,0,0,0]},{"name":"Medicine and Health","data":[0,6,33,58,29,16,39,29,3,28,30,51,57,59,35,51,40,0,0]},{"name":"Military","data":[0,9,30,21,24,21,5,0,0,0,0,0,1,405,1625,1452,363,0,1]},{"name":"Politics/Office Holders","data":[0,4,3,7,40,12,4,7,12,0,0,1,7,11,5,6,0,0,0]},{"name":"Religion and Clergy","data":[0,42,59,49,73,44,50,26,34,28,42,58,70,54,86,156,87,0,0]}]
Borrowings through time by book genre
Borrowings at this library during the period, divided into sections for book genre. Press on a year bar to zoom in on its borrowings, divided into months.
[{"name":"Belles Lettres","data":[0,16,60,50,72,48,28,25,21,32,49,57,72,85,158,174,84,3,1]},{"name":"Drama","data":[0,6,17,16,24,20,14,10,12,13,10,23,22,39,85,59,23,2,0]},{"name":"Education","data":[0,1,24,17,20,9,11,7,10,8,10,21,18,10,49,36,14,1,0]},{"name":"Fiction","data":[0,128,196,224,254,163,170,135,109,131,127,184,231,386,885,1067,441,14,8]},{"name":"Fine Arts","data":[0,1,1,0,2,0,2,1,0,0,0,0,2,2,0,4,0,1,0]},{"name":"History","data":[1,27,89,93,122,81,79,61,29,62,72,80,122,184,330,355,145,7,2]},{"name":"Law","data":[0,4,3,0,6,2,1,0,2,1,2,2,2,2,9,11,2,0,0]},{"name":"Lives","data":[1,30,59,82,112,51,49,48,51,81,71,92,106,198,272,327,171,17,5]},{"name":"Mathematics","data":[0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,0]},{"name":"Medicine","data":[0,2,4,4,5,4,2,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,4,8,0,0,0]},{"name":"Natural Philosophy","data":[0,7,8,11,7,14,8,3,6,13,10,6,13,14,23,40,23,0,0]},{"name":"Periodicals","data":[0,6,33,44,37,11,18,18,9,13,32,41,67,77,129,163,40,1,1]},{"name":"Philosophy and Morality","data":[0,15,16,23,40,16,10,5,8,10,23,16,26,26,69,79,37,1,3]},{"name":"Poetry","data":[0,25,48,70,85,69,49,54,42,58,77,75,120,89,139,160,113,5,2]},{"name":"Politics, Society and Political Economy","data":[0,8,30,22,37,14,20,13,19,18,28,25,37,48,72,69,61,1,4]},{"name":"Practical Arts/Useful Knowledge","data":[0,1,3,5,10,5,5,6,5,10,4,8,11,9,23,17,16,0,0]},{"name":"Reference Works","data":[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0]},{"name":"Sermons","data":[0,1,1,0,3,0,0,1,1,1,2,1,5,10,12,15,8,0,0]},{"name":"Theology","data":[0,8,16,20,22,12,7,9,7,14,16,7,17,30,37,52,24,1,1]},{"name":"Travel","data":[0,51,95,139,140,92,79,53,47,76,70,83,106,133,268,274,155,19,3]}]
Book edition frequency of borrowing
Select one or more book editions to plot their frequency of borrowing in your chosen libraries over time. Start typing the name of a book to begin. Once selected you can repeat this process for as many books as required. To search for all records relating to a book press on its name in the section above the chart. To remove a selected book press on the icon beside its name.
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Cite this page
APA Style:
Facts & figures for Selkirk Library. 2025. In Books and Borrowing: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers, 1750-1830. University of Stirling. Retrieved 22 May 2025, from https://borrowing.stir.ac.uk/facts/selkirk
MLA Style:
"Facts & figures for Selkirk Library." Books and Borrowing: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers, 1750-1830, University of Stirling, 2025. Web. 22 May 2025. https://borrowing.stir.ac.uk/facts/selkirk
Chicago Style
Books and Borrowing: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers, 1750-1830, s.v., "Facts & figures for Selkirk Library," accessed 22 May 2025, https://borrowing.stir.ac.uk/facts/selkirk
If your style guide prefers a single bibliography entry for this resource, we recommend:
Books and Borrowing: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers, 1750-1830. 2025. University of Stirling. https://borrowing.stir.ac.uk
